Our ancestors and the Black Death

When did the Black Death start and end?

When it comes to mass death events in the British Isles, the impact of the Bubonic Plague is understandably the 'main event'. We are taught about it as children, it exists in our folk memory as nursery rhymes (Ring-a-ring-a-roses), and it remains a topic of horror many centuries on.

The Black Death hit Britain in 1347 and over the next few years devasted the population, killing an estimated 3.5 million people by 1350. The population of Britain and Ireland at this time was an estimated 8 million people - so the 3.5 million who perished represent an even more unimaginable percentage that we may think today.

While it subsided in the early 1350s, the Plague would continue to have resurgences in Britain on into the 1800s.

Causes of mass death events in the British Isles?

The next most devasting event to occur, in terms of sheer number of people who perished, was the Irish Potato Famine, 1845-1849, in which an estimated 1 to 1.5 million people perished. The population of Ireland, prior to the famine of the 1840s, was estimated to have been about 8 million people.

And famine is the topic of Wayne Shepheard's research in the August 2024 issue of Family Tree.

While plague is such an evocative topic, Wayne Shepheard argues that we should not overlook the impact of lack of food on our ancestors' health, fertility, and resistance to disease.

How can we tell if our ancestors suffered from famine?

"Higher than 'normal' death rates by just a few factors in a community or region may generally be attributed to poor nutrition or food shortages," writes Wayne Shepheard." This may affect a wider segment of a community but may not be as devasting within individual families. The most vulnerable members, children and older people, will be affected the most."

Writing about Penrith, Cumbria - a place that Wayne explains has been extensively studied by scholars - he states:

"Beginning in July 1596 there was a significant increase in the number of deaths. No mention of disease was made in the burial register for these deaths, so the cause was something other than plague."

So, if not plague, then what was the cause of the rise in deaths?

Wayne is fascinated by the impact of the environment on our ancestors' lives (see his blog), and he goes on to write:

"Northern Europe, including much of the British Isles had suffered through very dry conditions in 1595. The results of the drought conditions were reduced harvest volumes of most grains and consequent higher prices as inventories were consumed. Poor environmental and economic conditions persisted into subsequent years."

Serious limitations on access to food was something that many of our ancestors suffered through most of history, such that Wayne maintains that we will need to look for evidence of famine, as he has, in wider meteorological studies, and contemporary writings for instance. It may well have been too frequent an occurrence to warrant mention in the parish registers of burials. Realistically too, plague and famine may often have occurred hand-in-hand, an undernourished population less able to fight off the pestilence.

Wayne shares an evocative quote from the dean of Durham, in a January 1597 account, which seems to show this:

"Want and waste have crept into Northumberland, Westmoreland and Cumberland; many have come 60 miles from Carlisle to Durham to buy bread, and sometimes for 20 miles there will be no inhabitant. In the bishopric of Durham, 500 ploughs have decayed in a few years, and corn has to be fetched from Newcastle, whereby the plague is spread in the northern counties: tenants cannot pay their rents; then whole families are turned out, and poor boroughs are pestered with four or five families under one roof. . . In Northumberland great villages are depeopled, and there is no way to stop the enemy's attempt; the people are driven to the poor port towns."